Life and death in 17th century London

A new exhibition at the Royal Society in London features some of the most remarkable treasures from 350 years of book collecting, including a rare volume that looks at causes of death in 17th century London.

The exhibition includes John Graunt’s 1679 work Natural and Political Observations…upon the Bills of Mortality, which provides this unique insight. Entries in the fold-out tables of mortality in the book range from the amusing to the shocking:

• The year 1648 apparently saw a single death from “itch” while in 1660, nine people died as a result of being “frighted”.  The tables bear several entries per year for unfortunate people who died of “lethargy”.
• “Grief” was also a surprisingly common cause of death with over 200 cases recorded over a twenty year period.
• In the decade from 1647-57 Graunt records almost 30,000 deaths from consumption (better known today as tuberculosis), especially shocking considering that the population of the City was probably no more than 350,000 at this time.
• The rising numbers of fatalities attributed to smallpox – from 139 in 1647 to 1523 deaths in 1659 – bears testament to the vicious epidemic that would ravage London in the 17th century, not to be stemmed until Edward Jenner FRS’s development of a smallpox vaccination.
• The tables list around 20 deaths a year from the “King’s Evil” (now thought to be another form of tuberculosis) – though Graunt is keen to put such superstitions to rest, declaring in his introduction that “the opinions of Plagues accompanying the entrance of Kings, is false, and seditious”.

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